


What To Do When You're Not Expecting: Johnny Storm Edition

by dottie_wan_kenobi



Series: spideytorch fics [3]
Category: Fantastic Four
Genre: Alternate Universe, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Babies, Emotional Baggage, Emotionally Repressed, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Medium Burn, Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, Timeline What Timeline, he's the vine of the grinch screaming and saying "I'm a little messed up", johnny is simultaneously really good and really bad at pretending he's okay, johnny wants to be a dad so i made him one, no fridging, past traumas, vaguely post Johnny's death and return from the negative zone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-06-30 01:09:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19842388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dottie_wan_kenobi/pseuds/dottie_wan_kenobi
Summary: Johnny Storm's had a horrible, miserable, never ending year. Or maybe a horrible, miserable, never endinglife, if he's being honest with himself.But all that ends when one day, a woman he slept with once in a drunken attempt to distract himself from his own thoughts comes to the Baxter Building, bearing an adorable four-month-old gift in a car seat named Dylan.-------aka, I wanted to make Johnny happy, and decided the best way to do that was to give him a baby. and eventually Peter Parker, too, but neither of them know about that part yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where I'm going with this lmao but whatever. I'm gonna post this anyway. It's one am. Even if I'm the only one who reads it, I don't care, I'm proud of it. not that title tho lksjdfhsakhjkh that's definitely not one of my strongest moments here
> 
> This _**is**_ gonna be a spideytorch fic, but Peter's not in this first chapter much so just hold on thru yall. He's coming.
> 
> not betad so if something is wrong, just let me know!! also I don't have any kids of my own, just three nibblings (nieces and nephews) so idk how realistic this situation is? I tried to make sure it wasn't rushed but honestly idk. If it's stupid I'm sorry lol
> 
> **Warnings for this chapter:** Johnny uses drinking as a way to cope with his emotions. There's a brief, not graphic scene that implies an alien touches Johnny without his consent. He mentions having a lot of guilt, and mentions having panic attacks but they aren't graphic either. Small, non-graphic mention of vomiting. At one point, he has anxiety-driven thoughts about his loved ones being dead (but no one is). He thinks about Lyja a few times, and honestly she deserves a warning in general (tho it's very not graphic). Also, TMZ is creepy as hell.  
> I think that's all lol

It was a bad day. It was a really, really bad, awful, horrible day, and Johnny had just wanted to forget everything— _ and how awful is it _ , he thought wearily,  _ that there’s so much I want to forget? _ —so he’d done what anyone else would. He’d gone out to a club, some friends he hardly knew at his side, and he’d gotten black out drunk.

But being black out drunk couldn’t drive all the thoughts out of his head, ones he desperately wanted gone, so he threw back another shot of vodka and moved on to the next step of the night. Distracting himself as much as he possibly could, hopefully with the help of someone else.

The next morning, he woke up naked in a fancy hotel room, a beautiful woman by his side. Equally naked. There was a hickey on her neck, slightly darker than her skin. She was snoring, but it was quiet enough he only heard it every other breath.

Groaning, he dropped his face into the pillow and went back to sleep.

When he woke up a few hours later, she was gone, and someone from the staff was knocking on the door, telling him he had to get out or pay for another night. Clutching the sheet around his waist, he got up and went to go deal with it.

* * *

Okay, so it was a bad fucking year. Of course it was. 

The bad guys wouldn’t chill at all. The longest they went with a break was a week and a half. They had an average rest period of 3.7 days and that was it. He went days, sometimes, without sleeping—except, of course, when he passed out and had to be watched over like a fainting damsel, by people who really should’ve been out fighting the alien invasion or Dr. Doom bullshit of the day. 

An alien calling herself Exauria came to earth, and she was friendly at first, even helping them force Namor back into the sea. 

And then.

And then she’d climbed into Johnny’s bed with him one night and he’d woken, confused, and understandably assumed the worst, and well. Nobody liked almost dying by fireball.

When he tried to explain why it wasn’t his fault Exauria had tried to kill them all that night—though, if he were being honest, he knew it  _ was  _ his fault, and if he’d had any reaction other than ‘get the fuck out of my bed, Lyja’, it wouldn’t have happened at all—his teammates, his  _ family  _ weren’t very receptive.

No one outright blamed him, but he got the cold shoulder from Ben for the next week.

He got drunk again and called Wyatt, who was way too nice to him considering it was four in the morning and he was ugly crying. In apology the next day (night, really), he’d offered to take his old friend out to eat, his treat. They’d set a date and everything, and then goddamn Doc Ock decided it was a fine night to kill people, just as they were walking into the restaurant. The next four times he attempted to hang out with Wyatt, he was foiled by stupid bad guys. Eventually he’d just apologized, nearly in tears again, and left before Wyatt could say something about how choked up he was.

Stress and guilt still duked it out in his chest when he thought about how he hadn’t made it up to Wyatt yet, but he tried to just get past it. He babysat the kids for Sue and Reed, and played with them, a fiery white knight who never quite managed to save the princess, who always saved herself first. Her brother, acting as King while the true King and Queen were off in faraway lands (the Four Seasons, which was all Johnny had asked before pretending to gag), gave her medals as a reward. Knight Storm got thank you kisses on his forehead, and an official title of Sir Uncle Johnny.

It was a nice night, and not for the first time, his heart ached for kids of his own.

He didn’t let himself dwell on it, though really, he had no time to, anyway. TMZ wouldn’t leave him alone for even a second, and he was always left on the defensive, trying to make sure they didn’t publish anything incriminating. His life was one big cycle of flaming on, fighting villains, bickering with Ben and Peter, and avoiding his feelings, so it wasn’t like he was actually doing things that might affect his public image. Still, they could twist anything, and he was well aware of that.

Everything he said and did was news the next day, and just as he thought, those assholes never had anything good to say about him. For all that his public persona was carefully staged, he was still Johnny Storm. And according to them, Johnny Storm was nothing more than a walking, talking, sometimes-heroic manwhore. His friends were either charity cases or Instagram models. He was a drunken idiot and that was about as deep as his personality went.

He stopped tweeting for a few days, so exhausted and angry at himself and the world, and suddenly people were asking if he was okay, if he was missing, maybe dead again. Peter invited him out to do a photoshoot, and he posed with Felicia and Mary Jane, who both complimented him and made him blush so hard his ears lit on fire. Their laughs made him smile, but it was Peter’s obvious amusement twinkling in his eyes that had Johnny’s heart racing. 

People stopped asking if he was dead, and which one he was fucking, when MJ posted the pictures on Instagram.

Soon after that, Franklin told him about a bully at school. Apparently the kid had been bullying people, so Franklin stepped in and made the twerp stop, and now  _ he  _ was being bullied, and what should he  _ do _ , Uncle Johnny? Mommy told me you were bullied too.

He had to bite his tongue so he didn’t turn his nephew to a life of mean-spirited roasts or physical fights, and helped him tell Sue and Reed instead. Sue and Reed, who were almost always around, looking at him like they were trying to see right through him and figure out why he was fucked up that day, and if he maybe needed another talk.

Glaring at them and pointedly reminding them he was an adult didn’t do much to stop it.

He continued to see Alicia a lot, too. She always knew when he was in the room, and while they didn’t exactly ignore each other, the close friendship they’d had was gone. It made him feel sick to his stomach, to think he’d never again have her in his life the way he had for years. A friend, a confidante, someone he could turn to when Sue, Reed, and Ben were too busy for him. Now it was all tainted and awkward, and she never touched him anymore, not even a simple hug.

It made him so furious with Lyja that he burnt his shower curtain and loofah until there was nothing left.

Of course, not along after he realized it was gone for good, they went to space to help a quickly deteriorating planet, and they had fire resistant germs there. He got physically sick, and spent the whole way home throwing up. Not even Sue rubbing his back helped make him feel any better, even though it always had when he was a kid.

TMZ got pictures of his head stuck in a bucket, his suit disgustingly sweaty from the trip, and he had the distinct pleasure of hearing TV reporters asking if he was “finally feeling the effects of the Negative Zone.”

As if he hadn’t been having nightmares basically every night. As if he hadn’t had so many panic attacks that even the kids were learning how to deal with them. As if he didn’t have Jennifer and Wyatt and Peter all calling him, suspiciously wanting to “just chat for a while.” Even Felicia sought him out one night, inviting him out to pizza that he somehow ended up paying for. Their conversation focused heavily on her stupid broken washing machine, which he offered to help fix. TMZ got pics of him leaving her apartment, because of course they did, and he had to deal with an annoyingly jealous Peter for days.

He tried to distract himself with alcohol, but laying in bed, alone and drunk, watching shit like  _ Love, Simon _ and  _ 10 Things I Hate About You _ ...it didn’t make him feel any better. He bought a car and took it apart, and did it two more times when he couldn’t stand waiting around for another emergency anymore. Painting flames on it was fun for about five seconds, and then he tore it apart again and repainted the whole thing the ugliest color he could find, just for the hell of it.

Over the course of the year, he went nova three separate times. He got five concussions. Someone kissed him so hard at a charity thing they got invited to that his teeth hurt for an hour afterward. Stopping a man from groping a woman got him a knuckle sandwich, so hard that his lip split and puffed up.

TMZ got pics of that, too.

It was a horrible, miserable, never ending goddamn year. And somehow not the worst he ever had to survive through.

The thought didn't comfort him.

* * *

“Johnny?”

“Five more minutes, sis,” Johnny grumbled, burrowing as deeply into his bed as he possibly could.

“ _ Johnny _ ,” Sue said again, and this time he registered she sounded a little weird. A little worried.

He got his knees under him, and pushed himself up, his thin sheet wrapped around his shoulders like a cape, except not really ‘cause capes were stupid. Blinking blearily at her, he asked, “What?”

Sue was nervous. There was nothing that would give it away to someone else, not really, but the tension in her shoulders was as obvious to him as night versus day. With her hands on her hips that way, she looked more angry than anything, but when she spoke, there was none of that in her voice. “You have a visitor.”

“Who?”

“She said her name is Jade Harris.”

He blinked at her, the name ringing exactly no bells. “What...what does she want,” he finally asked.

She hesitated, and honestly, it freaked him out. Nothing made her hesitate, not fear or death or vast outer space. Nothing at all. It was something he loved about her—she followed her gut and didn’t waste precious time thinking about it.

“I think...I think you should go and talk to her, okay? And if you need anything, I’m here. Me and Reed and Ben and the kids. And Alicia. We’re all here for you, okay?”

“Jesus Christ,” he said, jumping out of bed—his sheets falling to a mess on the floor that he almost slipped on—and blurting out the first thing that came to mind. “Did someone die? Is Wyatt—”

If it were Peter, Felicia or MJ would’ve come. If it were Jennifer, there wouldn’t be someone at the door. If it were Alicia or one of the kids, he would’ve been woken up already. But if it were Wyatt, it would make sense there was some random lady coming by, probably executing his will or something. 

Sue’s eyes widened and her hands came up, clamping down on his shoulders and steadying him. “No! No, listen, Wyatt is fine.”

“Is it Lyja then?” Goddammit, if Lyja was at their door, bothering them again, he’d—

“No. Johnny, it’s not…. Everyone’s okay. Just—just go talk to her, okay? And like I said, I’m here for you, always.”

The way she said it made his heart start hammering and his temperature rise. She was forced to pull away, and it made guilt slam into him, but evidently he had other things that needed to be dealt with.

On autopilot, he walked to the common room. There, sitting beside Alicia and Franklin, was a woman who was almost familiar. Dark skin, pretty eyes, long curly hair. A beautiful smile that he thought he would remember if he’d ever seen it before.

When she saw him, she stood up, and they met halfway. 

“Hi,” she said, sticking her hand out. He had to consciously make his own hand less hot in order to return the gesture. “I’m Jade. I don’t know if you remember me, but….”

He swallowed hard, suddenly remembering where he might’ve seen her before. “I...I think I do, but if you’re who I think you are, uh...that night is really fuzzy and I don’t—”

She nodded, eyes darting down to where their hands had stopped shaking but hadn’t let go. Robotically, he loosened his fingers and tucked his hands into the pockets of his pajama pants.

“Yeah.” The word was accompanied by a nervous laugh. “Um, yeah, that was me. And, funny thing, uh—”

From between the tall coffee table and the couch, a small noise came. He wrote it off as being from one of the kids’ toys, or maybe they’d dragged in a cat while he wasn’t looking.

Quietly, Sue pulled Alicia and Franklin, who was whispering anxiously to his mom and aunt, out of the room.

For a moment, the two of them just stood there. Johnny was confused why she was here—he hadn’t seen her in over a year, and nothing had come of their one night together. He couldn’t even remember it.

Finally, Jade sighed and looked up, meeting his eyes. “There’s no easy way to say this. You got me pregnant.”

And, because Johnny’s life was a huge cosmic joke, that’s when a cry suddenly came from between the coffee table and couch.

Jade didn’t go do to calm the baby that was evidently over there, she just stood rooted in her spot. Staring at him with her pretty eyes.

His mouth was dry and his head hurt and he thought he might throw up. Then—”I swear to god, if you’re Lyja, somehow tricking the system into not saying it’s you, I’m—”

The baby cried louder, and Jade, giving him a confused look, moved over to them. Over her shoulder, she said, “I don’t know who Lyja is, but if you’re asking if I’m lying, I’m not. Trust me, you were the only guy I slept with around the time he was conceived.”

“He?” Johnny choked out, stepping closer hesitantly.

Jade smiled up at him, pulling the now screaming baby out of his carseat. “Yeah, he.” Then, as she grabbed a half-full bottle out a baby bag he hadn’t noticed, she informed him of the baby’s name, birthday, and size when he was born. 

Dylan Jonathan Harris. Born June 28th, making him about four months old. Seven pounds, 15 ounces, 21 inches long.

Johnny’s  _ son _ . Jesus Christ.

He had to sit down, and did so right next to Jade, his head in his hands. 

“Why did you come here?” He asked, immediately wincing at how it sounded. “I—I mean, why now, why take so long?”  _ Why didn’t you tell me before he was born? _

He’d always dreamed of holding his child for the first time, of being in scrubs like dads were in TV shows and crying his eyes out over a tiny little infant. Then he’d dreamed of pulling his child out of their egg and cradling them to his chest, helping them get accustomed to life outside.

But no. Here he was. Halfway to a panic attack, afraid to look at the child in the arms of a woman he’d only met once before today. Afraid that he’d look, and fall in love, and eventually it would all fall apart, and he’d end up with his heart broken. Again.

Jade sighed through her nose. “My mom is sick, and she needs someone to help take care of her. She lives in England, and it’s just me and her, you know? So I’m going to go do what I can for her.”

“And you can’t take—Dylan?” He tripped up over the name, couldn’t help it. It was his  _ son’s  _ name, and that alone was a very emotional and scary thought.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea to take him on the plane. And anyway, I…. I’ve always kind of thought he’d be better off with you. It’s no secret you want a family, and as much as I love him, I’m not...I’m not really ready to have a kid.” She suddenly looked at him, fierce fire in her eyes.

He looked back, trying to show her he wasn’t judging. It wasn’t like he was in any place to judge, anyway. 

After a moment, she seemed satisfied with what she saw, and continued, “I’m not a bad mom. Don’t get that thought in your head, ‘cause I’m  _ not _ . But it’s different, having a baby who needs his diaper changed and his bottle filled, and having a child who needs so much more from me than a baby does. I had to take a semester off from college already, and honestly, I don’t want to do that again if I don’t have to. I do want him in my life, he’s my  _ son _ , but….” She shrugged, not unkindly. “I think it’s best that I’m not his main caregiver.”

It was hard to think, hard to breathe. He still couldn’t look at the baby, not until he knew what the outcome of this was. “And...do you want me to be...that? His main caregiver?”

“If that’s what you want. If not, open adoptions are a thing. I’d still get to see him, but he’d have people who are better equipped to raise him there, too. The only thing I thought might be an issue was….”

“My powers? My job?” If they cost him this chance, he would—he would quit the team, he’d find a way to get rid of his fire. He didn’t know who he was without it, but dammit, he could figure it out.

“Yeah.” Jade made a face. “I mean, I’ve heard interviews where you say you rarely hurt people, so I’m not that worried about that. I mean, I am, but. Not as worried about what’ll happen to him if you suddenly have to leave for space, and he’s home alone for a week or more.”

“He—he wouldn’t be,” Johnny said, throat still dry. His head was kind of spinning, too. “My sister, her kids live here, and our—my—uh, The Thing, his wife lives here, too, and when we leave, she helps take care of them.”

“I see that,” and she smiled, and it made him sort of nervous. Not in a crush-like, heart fluttering type of way, though. The way he always felt around people who held his world in their palms. Quite literally, in her case. “I had a few questions, though….”

They talked for a while, discussing what was going to happen next. Her flight wasn’t for another few days, and she wanted to meet the others first before she left Dylan with him. She said she didn’t know how long she’d be gone, but that she wanted him to send her pictures and call her often, so she could stay in the loop. He agreed to all of it, finally looking at the baby once he was ready to be burped.

He looked tiny and fragile, dressed in a little onesie with spaceships on it, and he had a milk mustache that Jade wiped away gently. He had short hair, little curls closer to Jade’s hair color than Johnny’s own, but not quite the same. His eyes were Jade’s, but he looked strikingly like Johnny did in a baby picture Sue cooed over every once in a while. When he saw Johnny looking, he smiled, and it made him just as nervous as Jade’s did.

Predictably, Johnny fell in love with him immediately.

After he was done being burped, Johnny got to hold him. The baby settled into his arms as easy as anything, babbling a little bit. Tears sprung to his eyes, and it wasn’t because Dylan attempted to pull his chest hair out with his tiny little hand.

Jade took a picture for him, joking a little about how red his eyes were, but let him have his moment.

He didn’t know what to say to Dylan. With Franklin and Valeria, it hadn’t been such a big deal—an uncle’s first words to a baby were different than a parent’s first words. And his baby was already old enough to open his eyes, to mostly hold his head up on his own. It was doubly different, and it made Johnny horribly nervous.

“I’m your dad,” he settled on eventually, voice pitched low. “And I know we just met, but I already love you so much, baby.”

Dylan made a funny little growling noise, blinking sleepily up at Johnny.

Eventually, Jade had to leave. He transferred the baby over, and she told him how to get him into his car seat, how to buckle him in and make it tight enough he wouldn’t fall out, but not tight enough that it would hurt him. He paid close attention, helped her out, and stood in front of the elevator for a long, long time.

Sue popped up next to him at some point, steering him to the couch. They sat next to each other, her arm over his shoulders. It felt nice to just be with her, the way it used to be before they met Reed and Ben. Her smile was obvious in her voice when she said, “He’s a really cute baby.”

Johnny couldn’t help his own lips curling up as he said, “I know.”

Later, he went and laid back in bed, his thoughts racing a million miles an hour. On instinct, he called Peter, and told him everything that had happened, and as much about how he was feeling—his sheer, overwhelming happiness; his also sheer, also overwhelming fear; the shock borne from how quickly it all happened; even his insecurities about being a dad—as he could manage to choke out.

Peter asked about Jade, a weird little note in his voice that went away when Johnny explained they hadn’t even discussed being together. It was pretty obvious that wasn’t what either of them wanted.

“I can’t wait to meet him, Johnny,” Peter said before they hung up. “I know you’re gonna be a great dad. I just know it.”

He couldn’t stop the tears that time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is shorter than chapter one but I felt bad it's been so long since I updated, so here you go!! Thank you for your patience and the lovely comments on the first chapter! <3

“You know,” MJ said, the cup of lemonade in her hand tipping almost dangerously to the side. “If you weren’t okay, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

“Well that’s great, but I  _ am  _ okay.” Johnny had to resist saying Peter had already said something like this. And Jennifer. And Wyatt. And Sue, repeatedly.

“I said  _ if _ .” MJ smiled, and even though there wasn’t a mean bone in her body, it was a wicked, pointed smile. He had to force himself not to look away. There was no way she wouldn’t take it as an admission of defeat.

Peter came to the table then, juggling his laptop, which was falling out of his bag, and two cups (refills for the superpowered super-metabolizers). Johnny had to reach out and grab the laptop before it slipped to the ground, and Peter shot him a grateful glance. Settling both himself and the cups down, he asked, “If what?”

Johnny opened his mouth to say something like, “If we’re going to place bets on the kid being a ladykiller,” because they’re in public and he’s Johnny Storm and people were probably listening and taking photos. He felt weird about saying Dylan’s name still, especially where people who weren’t Sue or Peter could hear.

But before he could, MJ was saying, “If he’s taking this, you know,  _ life changing news _ well or not. And all I said, Pete, all I said was that it’s okay if he’s maybe freaking out a little bit! If I found out I had a—”

“Shh!” Of course, he was so loud, the attention of the nearest tables were immediately on them. He smirked, waving it off. “Confidential, boring stuff,” he said, pretending his heart wasn’t beating out of his chest. “Don’t worry about it.”

He didn’t want anyone finding out yet. If people knew about Dylan, that Johnny had...that he’d been so upset, that he’d gone out and gotten so drunk he forgot to put on a condom—Jesus, it was embarrassing. It would make people mad. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with angry parents not wanting him as a role model to their children. Not that he had a great track record of that, anyway.

Pushing that thought far,  _ far  _ away, he turned back to MJ and Peter. 

“I thought I’m the actor here,” MJ remarked, one eyebrow raised high. When he just shrugged, unsure how to respond, she continued, “All I’m saying is, if I were in your position, I’d have already cried my eyes out trying to deal with the stress. And eaten a tub of ice cream. Are you at that stage yet?”

“I’m not at any stage, okay, I’m not freaking out so why would I—”

“Johnny,” Peter cut in, reaching out and grabbing one of his hands. It was a friendly, familiar gesture, one they’d both employed when necessary during their long friendship. It also made Johnny feel kind of lightheaded, if he was being honest. “You should probably admit you’re freaking out before, uh, D-Day.”

“Don’t call it that.”

“But it’s, you know,” MJ dropped to a whisper, “the day you’re getting Dylan. Kind of a big deal. Very scary. And you didn’t deny you’re freaking out that time, which is basically the same as admitting it.”

“I don’t know why I invited you out.”

“So it looked less suspicious on Peter,” she said cheerfully. Peter laughed and squeezed his hand a little, before pulling away. He tried to be subtle about blowing on his hand, but Johnny noticed, and immediately shoved the hand Peter had held into his pocket. Fuck.

“Sorry,” and it was weak, but he had the thought that if he couldn’t control himself enough to not hurt Peter, how could he stop himself from hurting Dylan? At least babies didn’t— _ couldn’t _ —hide when they were upset. At least he had his family around, so they could take him when Johnny couldn’t rein it in enough to touch people. Especially vulnerable little babies who were expecting their fathers not to hurt them.

Johnny swallowed hard and forced himself to focus on the here and now.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m fine, just...scraped myself last night and they’re a little tender.” Peter shrugged, like nothing had even happened, and took a long drag of his coffee. “Anyway, you need us to hang out with you anymore before D-Day?”

“Stop calling it that,” he groaned.

“It’s just so accurate, though!”

Johnny stuck his tongue out at MJ, unable to stop his smile when she just laughed at him. To Peter, he said, “I gotta babysit. The adults—” he made a face at himself; he was an adult as much as anyone else in the Baxter Building, after all “—think it’ll be good practice, even though Val’s older than—him.”

“Do you even need practice?” Peter asked, twirling his cup a little.

“I was gonna ask the same thing,” MJ said. “Those kids adore you, and you’re so good with them. If it weren’t for many, many things, I’d totally have your babies.”

Peter laughed, and it sounded a little off. At the side-eyes they both gave him, he said a touch sharply, “What? I’m not allowed to laugh about one of my best friends’ childhood crush on my other friend culminating up to this moment, where she tells him that if she weren’t a lesbian, she’d have his kids?”

MJ fluttered her lashes, utterly cool in the face of Peter being weird. “Why? You jealous, tiger? You’re pretty too, but Johnny’s got those cheekbones—and if I saw that picture right, so does Dyl. Or he will, at least.”

“Don’t call him that,” Johnny said half-heartedly, flushing a little. Something about when Peter’s friends complimented him always left him reeling, unsure of how to react. 

“Why not? It’s cute,” Peter laughed, apparently less affected than Johnny, even though MJ had complimented them  _ both _ . Lucky bastard.

He didn’t know how to express that it already felt like he’d lost so much time, so many firsts, that he wanted to be the first—at least, of his side of the family—to call his—to call the baby ‘Dyl’. Not without sounding like a dick. 

“Just—just  _ don’t _ .” It came out harsher than he intended. Peter, used to it by now, hardly reacted at all.

On the other hand, Mary Jane’s mouth pursed just the tiniest bit. It made him squirm to make her mad, but this was his baby, not hers, so he was in the right. Right?

“Fine,” she said after a moment. “But I expect to see him soon.”

“Yeah, you and everyone else,” he muttered. 

Thankfully, the conversation moved on. He tried not to stew in his thoughts, which ran from topic (how likely was he to drop the baby? According to them, not at all) to topic (where he could put the crib at in his room—by the couch, maybe?), but it was hard to pay attention to Peter’s story about work, which he’d already heard.

He was distracted the rest of the time they hung out, but when MJ had to leave for work, Johnny was more than ready to go home. She had to go a different way than Johnny and Peter did, so they hugged her and split up. Some people on the street noticed Johnny, but no one approached them.

Peter bumped his whole body into Johnny’s side, saying, “So, you’re freaking out, right?”

With a sigh, he said, “No! No, I’m not freaking out. Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“Probably because you seem like you’re freaking out.”

“I’m not freaking out!” It was so loud, more people looked their way than before. Johnny rubbed his eyes, wishing he was home, wishing he could  _ breathe _ . All the attention and concern from just about everyone, even the kids, was making him feel crazy. It warmed him to know they all cared so much, but more than that, it was just claustrophobic, knowing they were all watching him, waiting for him to blow up or something. “I’m  _ fine _ , Pete. I promise.”

Peter was silent for a few moments, but Johnny could practically hear the gears in his mind turning. He didn’t believe Johnny, did he? There was no way. He was too smart for that.

Eventually, he said, “Johnny, one of these days, that answer might change. And when it does, I’ll be here, okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, thanks, man. Look, I’m just gonna—I’m gonna fly home, alright?” He patted Peter’s arm a few times, hardly giving him time to react before he was flaming on and taking to the sky.

He took the long way back, enjoying the air and peace and quiet. People were watching down below, but he was too high up, too far away for it to really matter. They couldn’t see him in the ways that counted. He was alone for all intents and purposes, just him and his fire...and the birds, but they didn’t bother him much.

His mind wandered to his—his—the baby he’d be taking care of soon enough. There was still so much preparation he had to do, but it felt overwhelming, even with all the offers of help. Thinking of the baby instead wasn’t any easier, bad memories and insecurities all brought up to the surface. Just because he hadn’t dropped Franklin or Val didn’t mean he wouldn’t drop Dylan—it was different. He never had to stay up all night with them when they were fussy, never had to feed them unless Sue or Reed was right there. That was his future, though, for the next however many years babies had issues sleeping through the night. Franklin still had nightmares a lot, and he was pretty indiscriminate in who he went to cuddle with after.

He was only barely a father and yet, he felt exhausted from it. (And wasn’t  _ that  _ a weird and kind of amazing, kind of horrible thought. Him, a father. It felt like a miracle and the end times both.)

Eventually, he had to go back home or risk fainting and hurting himself. Dinner was just being set out by Alicia, who gave him a brief smile before looking away. He sighed, shaking his shoulders out to dispel the tension there, and took his seat. It just so happened to be on the opposite end of the table from hers.

Valeria sat across from him, setting her complex science book on the table next to her plate. She reached out her fist, and, laughing, he fistbumped her. It was easy to pretend with the kids, even if they were both like, a hundred times smarter than him. “How ya doin’, squirt?”

She wrinkled her nose, but said, “I’ve been reading up on babies. Did you know they have 300 bones, but they don’t actually have kneecaps? The bones in the skull aren’t fused together yet, because otherwise it’d be too hard to give birth, so instead they have a fontanelle, which Mommy said is called a soft spot. And did you know they have  _ seventy  _ reflexes when they’re born?”

As she launched further into her explanation, Johnny felt the smile on his face freeze. Their skulls weren’t  _ fused together _ ? What the hell did that mean? The words “soft spot” sounded familiar, but that was just about the only thing that made sense to him.

“Honey, why don’t we talk more about it later?” Sue interrupted, heaping a spoonful of the meal onto her plate. 

“Okay, Mommy,” Val sighed, clearly a little annoyed to be redirected. 

Johnny avoided Sue’s look, fixing up his own plate. Across the table, Ben rumbled something to Alicia that made her laugh, and he had to force himself not to tense up at the sound.

Reed sat down, then, distracted by his tablet. “Johnny, can you pass the potatoes?”

Sighing with relief—finally, somebody who was acting normal and not asking if he’s okay!—he settled and did just that.

Later that night, as he was texting Jade, asking her more questions, TMZ posted an article heavily implying he and Mary Jane were together. Peter was only mentioned as “another guest”, with a quick implication that hey, maybe Peter and MJ were sleeping together too. And of course, someone had overheard MJ say “Dyl”, and now there was speculation that Felicia—according to the article, the “bombshell Johnny was pictured intimately with as recently as two months ago, and upcoming actress Mary Jane Watson’s longtime gal pal”—was going by that as a nickname.

Johnny’s head thunked to the pillow, and he fell asleep that night dreaming of burning gossip media to the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> Jade looks something like [this](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7e/78/98/7e7898cb92ce7f534ae1b3b3e1b9b594.jpg). she's not gonna be a huge part of the story, as this is mainly a Johnny Storm fic, then a spideytorch one, but I didn't want to fridge her. 
> 
> I'm not sure when I'll be updating bc I have a big bang fic I'm supposed to be working on so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> leave a comment and let me know what you thought!! <3


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